Smiling now, I went back to facing the mirror.
“I gotta take this shower,” he said. “If I don’t, I’m going to fall the fuck to sleep.”
“Oh,” I said, taking my brush and turning slightly.
“Don’t rush,” he said. “I didn’t hear you brush your teeth, either. Your cosmetic bag is still on the counter in the kitchen, and this glass is frosted. You won’t see anything.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to control my heart rate.
I heard the rustling of clothes as he stripped out of them, and squeezed my eyes shut as I roughly yanked the brush through my hair.
I hit a snarl and felt my head whip backward.
Almost as if it was meant to be, I glanced into the mirror as he was stepping into the shower. And thanks to the angle that my head was at, I caught the barest hint of leg and ass as the door closed behind him.
I nearly swallowed my tongue.
I did drop his hairbrush.
Things went fast after that.
My heart. My feet as I nearly rushed from the room.
My teeth getting brushed.
My face cream getting applied.
Hell, I’d never flossed so fast in my life.
And when I was about to exit completely, he called out for me to stop.
“Can you hand me my toothbrush?” he called.
I picked up his toothbrush—it was pink—and handed it to him.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Did you have toothpaste in there?” I asked curiously.
“Yeah,” he said. “I have toothpaste so I don’t have to move it from the shower to the sink. I keep telling myself to get an extra toothbrush, but I haven’t accomplished that feat yet.”
I snorted. “Anything else?”
“Nah,” he said. “Thank you.”
I bit my lip and walked out of the bathroom then, wondering if I should slip out of my shorts and dive under the covers, or leave them on.
It was such a dilemma that I was still contemplating what to do when the shower turned off.
Knowing that I’d hate them if I slept in them, I pushed them off.
Except, I underestimated how long it took a man to towel off and get clothes on, because I was pushing them down to the floor as the bathroom door flew open.
They were at a puddle near my feet when I heard him say, “Ready for the lights to go off?”
I flicked on my phone’s flashlight and said, “Yeah.”
The lights went off, and I cursed.
“Do you have an extra phone charger?” I asked.
“There’s one plugged in on your side of the bed. It’s the extra one that I use when I happen to be on that side of the bed,” he said. “Just sayin’, but I’m a rough sleeper. I’m not sure if I’ll leave you alone, so I’ll sleep on top of the covers.”
I plugged my phone in just as I saw him drop his sweatpants.
“Do you have an extra blanket?” I asked, trying not to let my eyes drop down to look anywhere lower than his nipples.
God, and what perfect nipples they were.
“I don’t sleep with a blanket,” he said. “I get hot.”
I frowned, thinking that sounded like a weird answer, but chose not to say anything more because, at this point, I was just babbling.
I dove under the covers and pulled them up to my chin, only realizing once I was under there that I hadn’t gone to the bathroom.
“Dammit,” I groaned, throwing the covers back off.
“What?” Justice asked.
“I have to pee,” I said, then walked straight for the door of the bathroom.
Once it was closed solidly behind me, I did my business, then sat there for longer than required as I thought about once again getting into bed with him.
I didn’t know what I was thinking.
Well, I did and I didn’t.
I knew that this was going to lead somewhere. I wasn’t stupid.
There was attraction underneath the surface that I could practically feel the bubbling undercurrents. I’d felt this attraction only once before, and it’d been in high school before I’d ever realized the possibilities of sex.
I wasn’t a virgin. I’d had sex before.
But I somehow knew that whatever it was between Justice and me was different.
Animal magnetism.
I reluctantly stood up and walked to the sink, washing my hands and once again dragging my feet.
But, with no option to stay in the bathroom all night, I opened the door to the bedroom.
“You forgot to flush.”
I cursed and turned around, flushing and then rewashing my hands.
He was chuckling when I made it back into the bedroom.
“I finished, then decided to sit there and contemplate my life,” I admitted. “I would’ve remembered.”
“Of course, you would have,” he said. “Just like I would’ve remembered to close the toilet lid every time I was reminded to do it by my mother when I was younger.”
I rolled my eyes and was thankful that he’d turned out all the lights.
The only thing that was illuminating the room was my phone which had yet to go to sleep.